Another Diaz de la Portilla lost to Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins Tuesday night. Not by as much as many thought he’d lose, but by enough to wound the dynasty. Again.
Maybe that’s why Renier Diaz de la Portilla showed up drunk to a candidate forum weeks ago: He saw the writing on the wall.
No matter how many times he called the incumbent — who beat his brother in a special election in 2018 — an “interloper” and “cultural appropriator,” no matter how many hundreds of thousands he collected in campaign contributions (more on that later), no matter how many crazy freak endorsements he got (Alex Penelas?!? Really!?!), the former Miami-Dade School Board Member and brother to Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla could not take the seat in District 5 away from La Gringa.
Higgins won with 52.5% of the vote to Renier DLP’s 47.5%, a difference of more than 2,500 voters, according to the results posted by the Miami-Dade Elections Department. Not as big a margin as one would think. He was saved by the red rush of Republican votes during early voting and Election Day, two categories that he won with comfortable margins. But not enough to overcome the whooping Higgins gave him in vote-by-mail ballots.
This is his third strike, after losing a bid in 2012 to return to the Florida House and a judicial race two years later. Maybe Renier has to wait for his big brother to vacate the Miami District 1 seat so he can be appointed to office.
While the scare tactics against the “socialist agenda” that wants to “defund our police” may have worked in many other races (more on that later), it obviously didn’t work here. Neither did the negative rhetoric calling Higgins a socialist and an outsider and unqualified to represent District 5 because she is not Hispanic.
He has nothing else, people.
It was also a boneheaded idea for Alex DLP to make a move on the property leased by the Dade Heritage Trust last month. It never happened, but the very thought that he had no respect for the organization or city history bristled the Brickell voters that his brother needed, some of whom already disliked Higgins and should have been easy pickings. It was a gift to her. One kindred political spirit speculates that The Dean intentionally sabotaged baby DLP’s campaign. They have a complicated relationship.
Anyway, Reni’s crazy, divisive rhetoric really wasn’t working. So the DLPs, in true Godfather style, turned to on-site intimidation.
Police were reportedly called Tuesday to the Robert King High precinct in Little Havana after the sitting Miami commissioner allegedly pushed an election department worker. He was asked to leave by the clerk, the precinct supervisor, who called the cops when he wouldn’t.
Read related: In dirty Miami-Dade District 5 race, front runners are both ‘communists’
“Allegedly, there was a physical altercation between one of the poll watchers for the Diaz de la Portilla campaign and one of our election workers,” Deputy Elections Supervisor Suzy Trutie told Ladra. “Allegedly, one of his poll watchers pushed one of our workers.”
Two other sources say it was big brother Alex, a known hothead, who got into an argument with the woman. According to a list from the county elections department, Alex DLP was an official, approved poll watcher for his baby bro’s campaign — along with big brother and former Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, former State Rep.-turned-lobbyist Manny Prieguez, Miami activist Beba Mann and 14 others.
Maybe he should have taken some paella.
Neither Renier DLP or his big brother answered the phone when Ladra called Tuesday. “Nothing happened,” Alex DLP texted Ladra after she asked for his side of the story.
Well, one thing happened: His brother lost.
“It does not matter,” The Dean texted. “My family is full of public servants.
“We are all good.”
Eileen Higgins keeps Miami-Dade Commission seat vs Renier Diaz DLP added by Ladra on
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